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Topic: Show your Bird Portraits (Read 4282841 times)

Hi Serendipidy.I took my elderly father to the local canoe lake. (for those that don't know many UK seaside towns have an artificial lake,or perhaps pond would be more accurate.) We were feeding the ducks and swans (the shitehawks (gulls) just steal what they want) and I was hand feeding swans, not skilled enough to take a pic at the same time, one of them thought the pink bit looked better than the grain and bread we had so grabbed on and pulled, nearly had an early bath! Strong pull and he was afloat! They don't hurt when they grab a finger, perhaps young or frail it would, but if they are being protective they are strong and I have heard will inflict pain!Thanks for more great pics folks.

A local sculptor is doing a statue of a snowy and I have been supplying him picts. I was trying to visually answer the questions: what is the snowy "Mask" and do they have ears.

The mask is made of fine feathers that form sort of a protective tunnel around each eye for wind protection ( my interpretation ). The picts were taken on the beach with a stiff wind and very low temps- about 22deg F ( good for fluffing feathers, bad for my fingers ) had to balance lighting with getting a position were the wind was not causing camera shake. The profile image shows what I think is his ear.

A local sculptor is doing a statue of a snowy and I have been supplying him picts. I was trying to visually answer the questions: what is the snowy "Mask" and do they have ears.

The mask is made of fine feathers that form sort of a protective tunnel around each eye for wind protection ( my interpretation ). The picts were taken on the beach with a stiff wind and very low temps- about 22deg F ( good for fluffing feathers, bad for my fingers ) had to balance lighting with getting a position were the wind was not causing camera shake. The profile image shows what I think is his ear.

I've been wanting to get a decent photo of a Vermillion Flycatcher for a long time. These birds are fairly common in our area (southeastern Arizona) but are the devil to shoot. They never sit still long enough to get a decent shot, or the light is wrong, or there are intervening branches and twigs. It's always something with these birds. This morning, however, everything worked out. We are experiencing high winds today with peak gusts of more than 30mph. This little guy was hanging on to his perch for dear life, not wanting to fly. That gave me the opportunity to set up a shot. 5Diii, 400DO, "M" setting, 1/640 @ f7.1, ISO 250.

For those interested in props and blinds and the like I've taken a shot looking back at my "blanket blind". You can picture the nuthatch on the top of the taller stump. Jrista, really kept me enthused with his encouraging posts so now I'm passing this along.

Shot from the east. I put reflective film on a piece of plastic and sewed it into the blind beside the lens so that I could more easily tell where a bird had landed. I cut the lens hole "tall" to allow more vertical motion on the gimbal head and took a piece of 1" thick (blue) foam and cut a 2" wide length. This I have wrapped around my lens a number of times and secured it with a rubber band.

I sit on a lawn chair and by leaning left I see my props completely. The only issue is sun, and time of day as the deck faces south south-east. The blind is hung from the canopy (listing wires inserted) over the deck and held down by a number of heavy steel pieces (some heavy winds were causing issues initially). The electric heater sits by my feet and I use it just to warm my hands.

Here's a Northern-rough Winged Swallow with symmetrical reflection. One of the most difficult birds I've ever photographed from an in flight / motion standpoint. 5D III users set your camera to AI servo with CASE 5 when tracking this erratic flyer (if unfamiliar most swallow/swifts will have same rule of thumb when in flight)

The term "bird portrait" is, at best, an oxymoron...one cannot do a portrait, using an acceptable definition of the term, in the creature's natural milieu. Nonetheless...

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